The invention relates to surgical drill guides for use in dental surgery and similarly constrained surgical and/or drilling operations.
Drill guides are commonly used by dental surgeons to align a drill or other cutting tool with an intended hole for a dental implant; however, existing drill guides have significant disadvantages. For example, some drill guides require insertion of a drill in alignment with a cutting trajectory, which can present difficulties in confined spaces that offer little clearance or overhead. As another disadvantage, some drill guides block a surgeon's view of the location where a drill meets bone or other tissue, thus impairing the surgeon's ability to obtain adequate visual verification of drill position and depth.
There remains a need for improved drill guide devices and methods for use in dental surgery and similarly constrained surgical and/or drilling operations.